When we, as educators, think about the devastating impact of misinformation, we think about our students–the conversations that we overhear in hallways, classrooms, and the cafeteria, parroting back sound bites of information and descriptions of videos that they have seen on social media platforms like Tiktok. In 2024, Pew Research analyzed teens, social media, and […]
Christine Banko
Christine Banko has a master’s degree in teaching and is a National Boards Certified educator of adult/young adult English-language arts. Her eight years of high school teaching experience in western Washington were preceded by a career in journalism, where she was a contributing writer and editorial assistant at Yes! Media. She is known for her expertise in developing creative and collaborative curriculum for diverse learners, resulting in student growth and a positive classroom culture.
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
How teachers are rebuilding a love of reading among teens
In a post-pandemic world, teachers have seized the opportunity to pause and rebuild their approach to learning. When life handed us lemons, we understood the need to offer more than just lemonade in order to reinvigorate students who are chronically absent and disengaged. Many teachers have increased student choice, social-emotional learning strategies, and centered learning […]
Posted inConfessions of a Teacher
RIF: The hidden cost of teacher reductions in students
“Gutted.” “Devastated.” “Abandoned.” These words, written in emails from my former students, express their feelings toward the news that my contract would not be renewed after ten years of service to the students and families in my community. I found myself “riffed,” a colloquial term for a reduction in force, or RIF–a storm that we […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
The Scaffold and The Lift: Differentiation to support every student
In a single school day, teachers make approximately 1,500 decisions. If, in one 45-minute class period, a high school teacher makes roughly 218 decisions as they teach, then they have only a short window of time to create lesson plans, update grades, upload assignments, write emails, and perform other tasks that can distract attention from […]
Posted inEnglish Language Learners
Writing in Reverse: A strategy to strengthen student writing
In the high school English classroom, one assessment continues to reign supreme: the essay. Informative, argumentative, and narrative essays have stood the test of time and for good reason. Essays allow students to showcase a multitude of skills across the common core, from research to literary analysis, creative writing to conventions. Not to mention the metacognitive […]
Posted inEnglish Language Learners
How to Navigate Censorship in a High School English Classroom
At a faculty meeting, a colleague once whispered to me, “So, what do you actually do in your English class if everyone already knows how to read and write?” Though it was an innocent enough question from a chemistry teacher, it brought me to the halting realization that the abstract nature of a high school […]